Burial for RAF airmen 59 years after plane crash

THE bodies of four RAF airmen who died when their Fairey Battle aircraft crashed into a glacier-covered mountain in Iceland are being recovered, thanks to a 20-year mission by an Icelandic historian.

Hordur Geirsson has searched the mountains south-west of the northern Icelandic town of Akureyri looking for the remains of an RAF pilot who had been based near Reykjavik during the Second World War. According to local mythology, Flying Officer Arthur Round, a 26-year-old New Zealander, based with 98 Sqn, was something of a flying ace entertaining the locals with aeronautical stunts for which his superiors would certainly have had him cashiered.

After serving in France during the German invasion, 98 Sqn moved to Kaldadarnes in south-west Iceland, flying coastal patrols to watch for a possible German invasion. On May 25, 1941, Round, from Wellington, and his navigator, 21-year-old Flt Sgt Reginald Hopkins of Southampton, were sent north to Akureyri to pick up two of their colleagues. Plt Off Henry Talbot, 24, of Bedford, and Flt Sgt Keith Garrett, 22, from Worksop, had been receiving treatment on a hospital ship moored in Akureyri harbour.

They took off from Melgerdi airfield, now the town's airport, in bad weather on the morning of May 26, 1941, and just 28 miles into their journey crashed into the ice-covered mountain. The aircraft was found two days later and a week after the crash a small burial party including the squadron chaplain went to the site to hold a service and place a small cross on the spot. The weather then closed in and snow and ice gradually covered the spot.

Related Articles

After the RAF left in July 1941, the precise location of the site was lost. But the dead airmen, and in particular Arthur Round, were never forgotten by the local people in Akureyri and, in his late teens, Mr Geirsson embarked on a quest to relocate their bodies and give them a proper burial. Mr Geirsson, now 40 and the curator of the Akureyri Museum, said: "The wreckage was in the glacier, which was at its peak, and sometimes I actually walked over it without realising it was there.

"The breakthrough came last summer when a friend of mine went to the British Public Record Office and found the original accident investigation report, which had a precise grid reference." At the same time, Iceland was enjoying its hottest summer for 30 years and the glacier retreated, revealing the crash site to Mr Geirsson and his colleagues in the Iceland Historical Aviation Society. We were shocked to find wreckage, small sad human remains and personal possessions, all perfectly preserved by the ice.

"There was a toothbrush, a collar with the name of one of the airmen inside, and a wallet. "Everything was scattered around and although I had been looking for it for so long, I didn't feel happy when I finally found the aircraft." The Icelandic authorities ordered the removal of some of the bodies and a six-man RAF mountain rescue team is now travelling to the scene to help recover the rest. Relatives of the airmen will fly to Reykjavik later this month to attend a memorial service and to watch the remains being buried in the city's military cemetery.

Flying Officer's Round's nephew Clive, who lives in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and will be attending the service, said: "I remember him going away on the boat. I must have been six or seven at the time. He played the piano accordion - Now is the Hour. They said he was going to England to teach their fighter pilots how to fly."